Someone has coined a new term for this fiction, Cli-Fi, for climate fiction.”
“I have read the recent press stories and noticed myself as a publisher how the best writers and especially the younger writers are plugging into these concerns. “I don’t know how long or where the specifics of her inspiration emerged from but I can see the concerns and the themes in the outline going back to things that I have heard her talk about for a couple of years now,” said Barrowman.
The controversial purchase of a prime piece of South Island land overlooking Lake Wanaka by Trump advisor and Pay Pal co-founder Peter Thiel also generated heated debate in the country, when it was revealed Thiel bypassed the overseas investment office approval for the sale by gaining New Zealand citizenship in 2011, despite not meeting the regular requirements.īarrowman said Catton was “dismayed” by the Brexit referendum and Trump’s presidential win, but the themes of her new novel were ideas and concerns he had heard her discuss “for a couple of years”. The proposed plot of Catton’s book comes on the back of a series of high-profile news articles detailing the plans of billionaire Americans who have purchased bolt-holes in New Zealand. “I have total confidence in her as a writer and a person and the book she is going to write.” “Ellie told me a while ago she was reading Lee Child and I see that in there, but also with all of her imagination and ethical concerns and ability to conjure up magic,” he said. The planned new novel will showcase a change in style for Auckland-based Catton, and will be less than half the size of The Luminaries at 80,000-100,000 words.Ĭatton, 31, won the Booker Prize for The Luminaries, an epic historical saga set during the New Zealand gold rush, in 2013.įergus Barrowman, publisher of Victoria University Press in Wellington said a six-figure advance was signed with Catton over the weekend - the largest sum he has ever paid for the work of a New Zealand author.Ĭatton has also signed again with Granta to distribute UK and Australian rights, McClelland & Stewart for Canadian rights, and FSG for US rights.īarrowman signed the deal after reading a 20-page outline of Catton’s planned novel, and called the plot “archetypal” and “pacy”. Their chance encounter with an American billionaire sparks a tragic sequence of events which questions, ultimately, how far each of us would go to ensure our own survival – and at what cost. Described as a “psychological thriller”, the novel follows the guerrilla gardening outfit Birnam Wood, a group of quarrelling leftists who move about the country cultivating other people’s land.
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